Making a Comeback with
Locally Grown Food
Food has changed. It’s as simple as
that. It seems almost impossible that something as general as food could have
changed at a very basic level, but it has. Imagine walking into the local
grocery store, seeing all of the different products showcased in even lines
along the shelves. Each box or jar with some bright color or design to catch
the eye, none of the actual food out for people to see. Today people don’t buy
food when they go to the grocery store. They buy the shiny thing that it’s
wrapped in or the promise of an abundance of vitamins and nutrients. No longer
is the value of the product determined by the consumer, but rather by the
marketing team that is telling you how healthy it is. This is a trend that I
had never really noticed as it took over my own life. It seemed perfectly
normal for food to come in square, cardboard boxes, hiding from the consumer
what the food actually looked like. Today I go through the produce aisle and it’s
becoming difficult for me to pick out the freshest items because I’m used to
just being able to look at the expiration date. Gone are the days where I could
go out to my grandma’s garden and pick cherries right off the trees as snacks.
My own food culture has changed in a very unhealthy way and this is why I am
going to try to introduce fresher, more locally-grown food in my diet.
One of the main concerns in buying
fresh and packaged food at the grocery store is how the food was processed.
Food has to be shipped all across the country every day because there are very
few places in the country where a variety of food is produced. For example in his
book “Tomatoland” Estabrook discusses the life of your average Florida tomato.
He discusses how a tomato is changed chemically so that it can endure the long
trek across the country. The tomatoes are also designed to be the perfect shade
of red and the perfect round shape. While this genetic altering may cause the
tomato to look more appealing once it’s out on display at the local super
market, it is a great mask for the lack of taste that awaits the consumer. With
all of the changes to the tomato, it loses its flavor with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture stating that most consumers consider commercially grown fresh
tomatoes to be tasteless compared to tomatoes grown in their own back yards
(Estabrook 1).
Many other types of produce see the
same treatment so that they do not lose their visual appeal once they arrive at
their destination. This process, while unhealthy and not in the best interests
of the consumers, is not as unnerving as the variety of “extras” that are put
into packaged food items to preserve their color or taste from factory to super
market. Looking at the ingredients list of almost any popular shelf product can
be disconcerting with food additives that sound like they would be more in
place in a plastics factory then in my Campbell’s Soup with names such as
xanthum gum, gelatin, ethanol, and benzoic acid. These additives provide no
nutrients or taste to the product. The first two are used as thickening agents
and the second two are used as food preservatives. While many of these products
are not directly harmful to the body, why do we need them if their only benefit
is that companies can sell more food?
With all of these different issues
that surround highly processed food, buying food locally or growing your own
food seems like the obvious solution. While in the not too distant past buying
locally grown food or only organic may have seemed unusual or unnecessary today
it is a growing industry. Studies have found the number of consumers all across
the world that are focusing more on the health and quality of the food is
increasing. Consumers also tend to buy food that detail how and where it was
grown, stating whether it’s organic, locally grown, or fair trade (Basu).
With people paying more attention to
where their food comes from it follows that according to Kathyrn Onken’s
research, local foods have seen a dramatic increase in availability and demand
(Onken). One of the main ways that this increase is seen is in farmers markets.
Farmer’s markets were the original grocery store, being the primary supplier of
produce and other goods to the public. Then with the advent of more advanced
technology and the need for greater efficiency, the farmer’s market steadily
grew into the enterprising food culture that we see today. Few remember its
humble beginnings. However, with the addition of the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct
Marketing Act of 1976 to the law which reestablished the right for farmers to
sell their produce directly to the consumers, the popularity of farmer’s markets
has grown (Hamilton). These small stands run by local farmers provide what many
consumers crave with their food—control. Consumers know where their products
are coming from and, because there is no corporate middle man, are able to get
a fair price for them. Farmers markets are also a lot more common in big cities
now to fulfill the need that many people have for fresh produce. The increase
in farmers markets can clearly be seen in Onken’s article which states that
farmers’ markets witnessed a 201 percent increase from 1994 to 2009 (Onken). With
this increase in farmers’ markets numbers and the sale of locally grown food,
it is slowly becoming easier to buy fresh products in America.
Now, many people might say that
eating organic and locally grown food does not necessarily mean that you will
be eating healthier food then could be found at the grocery store. “Locally
grown” is a difficult concept to define. Local may mean just down the street to
one person, while another could take local to mean from anywhere within the
state. This lack of definition for locally grown food does provide some concern
for where the food is coming from. However, most food that is labeled as
locally grown will also give details as to which farm it came from. This
provides the consumer with enough information to make their own decision as to
whether it is locally grown or not. Another concern with locally grown food is
that it might contain bacteria and other harmful things that would otherwise be
eradicated in a food processing plant. Many of these ideas are unfounded and
some have been shown to be exact opposite. In the critically acclaimed
documentary Food, Inc. Joel Salatin, owner of the self-sustainable Polyface
Farms, discusses how a university tested its chicken against a
government-inspected chicken. The test found that the government-inspected
chicken averaged 10 times more bacteria than the chicken from Polyface Farms
(Kenner, Taylor). This shows that many of the direct-to-consumer farm products
that are not inspected by the government can often be healthier than those that
have been inspected by the government.
Along with the studies done at
Polyface Farms, a study done by Ramona Robinson-O’Brien showed the health benefits
of eating locally grown food. In her study, the dietary habits of males and
females between the ages of 15 and 23 who ate either locally grown, organic
food or processed food were studied. Her results found that adolescents who
valued eating food that was either locally grown, organic, non-genetically
engineered, or non-processed were more likely to have a healthy dietary pattern
of fruit, vegetable, and fat intake (Robinson-O’Brien). This study shows that
people, especially teenagers, who value where their food comes from and how it
is grown, are more likely to have an overall healthy diet. With a diet that
focuses more on eating locally grown food, you are more likely to make wise
food choices overall.
Gaining all of this insight on the
growing industry and benefits of locally grown food has caused me to reevaluate
my food choices. I look back on some of my favorite meals over the year and
many of them involve me helping my grandparents harvest the vegetables out of
their garden in their backyard to make a delicious stew or emptying my
grandmother’s gooseberry bush so that she could make us gooseberry pie. These
meals were amazing because I was able to eat food right out of my backyard.
Even though I was too small to have been able to consider how good it was for
my health and how much better for the environment it was, I think that I could
tell its benefits extended past the taste. There’s something about eating a
fresh cherry right off the tree that no company will ever be able to
manufacture or put into a shiny box with pretty labels.
Works Cited
Basu, A.K., and R.L. Hicks. 2008. "Label Performance and
Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Coffee: A Cross-National Perspective."
Discussion Papers on Development Policy 125, Center for Development Research,
Bonn, Germany. <http://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ubzefd/44336.html>
Hamilton, Lisa M. “The American Farmers Market.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and
Culture. Summer 2002; 2, 3, Research Library p.76. <http://0-proquest.umi.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/pqdlink?index=null&did=552149481&SrchMode=5&Fmt=10&retrieveGroup=0&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1337664137&clientId=48347>
Estabrook, Barry. “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial
Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.” 07 June 2009: Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Introduction
“Comparing
Willingness to Pay for Organic, Natural, Locally Grown, and State Marketing
Program Promoted Foods in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” Agricultural
and Resource Economics Review
40. 1 http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/872340131?accountid=14608>
Robinson-O’Brien,
Ramona; Larson, Nicole. “Characteristics and Dietary Patterns of Adolescents
Who Value Eating Locally Grown, Organic Nongenetically Engineered, Nonprocessed
Food.” Journal of Nutrition Education and
Behavior; Volume 41, Issue 1, January-February 2009, pp.11-18. <http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/science/article/pii/S1499404608000882>
Taylor
DA 2008. Does One Size Fit All?: Small Farms and U.S. Meat Regulations. Environ
Health Perspect 116:A529-A531. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.116-a528>
Kenner,
Robert; Pearce, Richard; Schlosser, Eric. “Food Inc.” 2009: Magnolia Home
Entertainment. DVD.
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